Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention

by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi

glimpse at this stage represents your strongest feelings about what is happening on the project. It is at this point that the emphasis might shift from openness to discipline. Begin to choose words carefully, keeping in mind the goals of your department, division, or the corporation as a whole, as well as the interests, tastes, and prejudices of the bosses who will read the report. You want to be effective and convincing. So muster all your skills to write a report that conveys your beliefs as clearly and succinctly as possible. If you manage to be intuitively receptive at the beginning, and rationally critical later on, the report will be considerably more creative than if you relied exclusively on one of these strategies. Shifting from one of these poles to the other is important also in relationships—between friends, spouses, or parents and children. For a relationship to work, it is essential to listen to the other person, to try to imagine why she says what she says, what she feels, how she sees the world.